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I've become skeptical about bitcoin for remittances. The biggest cost in remittance architecture isn't the electronic transfer, but distributing cash. Western U
by barretts 13y ago
I've become skeptical about bitcoin for remittances. The biggest cost in remittance architecture isn't the electronic transfer, but distributing cash. Western Union, e.g., maintains a network of over 1 million agents - banks, post offices, dry goods stores, mobile top-up kiosks, etc. - so that recipients, often in rural areas, can collect their cash. Bitcoin does nothing to reduce these costs.
(Unless you're assuming recipients in Africa et al. will keep their money in bitcoin, which is ridiculous at this point, and will be for many, many years.)
- rowanseymour 13y agoI think the solution to the distribution challenge is already here: mobile money. It's huge in Kenya and on the rise here in Rwanda and other neighbouring countries. Bitcoin would serve only to get the remittance to an in-country distributor, at which point it would be converted to local currency and delivered via mobile money.